Category: ROBSON LOWE

Robson Lowe, who died in Bournemouth aged 92 (after a long illness which, however, did not prevent him from working until the last few weeks of his life), will be best remembered as the father of postal history, a subject upon which he published many definitive works. He was, in all probability, THE professional philatelist of the twentieth century.

One of the stories reported was “He Loved his Stamps more than his Wife”. Mr A. fell in love with Mrs B, the wife of a collector-dealer. Mr A. offered Mr B. £150 worth of stamps in exchange for Mrs B. The offer was accepted and an agreement drawn up. All the parties were then in prison in New York charged with conspiring to be immoral.

There cannot be a philatelist of any standing, anywhere in the English-speaking world, who is not familiar with the name of Robson Lowe, be it for his wide philatelic knowledge, for his activities in the stamp auctioneering field or for his many publications.

Few other people have made such an impact on the stamp world during the past 35 years or have infused into it so many new ideas which are now widely accepted as basic essentials of the subject. He has been, and still is, in many respects a revolutionary who has laid bare the fallacies of preconceived notions in the stamp world, and in so doing has confused and, perhaps, antagonized some of the die-hards who did not see eye to eye with him. But whatever else he may have done he has drawn around him an ever-widening coterie of friends who respect and admire him, and pay keen regard to his pronouncements of matters philatelic.